Generalization Is Valuable And Key To Brand Marketing

A brand loyalist is a dependable, determined stereotype.

- Shubhranshu Singh

Marketing and brand building is that part of business management that relies most on robust generalization. It is maligned as a consequence and accused of being a non-science which ramps up costs, yet neither effectively proves return nor accurately primes investments. Broadly, generalization makes people feel marketing is based on hope and air. This is far from the truth. Here, I defend my tribe. The caveat, of course, is that I am also an advocate of deep analysis and, where possible, deeply biased towards deriving predictable deductive approaches with data.

That said, marketers must depend on stereotypes and generalizations. It is a sound practice. It relies on a natural heuristics. Consumers of a type, like birds of a feather, flock together. We must find them in their majority.

This approach follows a simple sequence. Marketing must understand the consumer need, own the need, ensure goods and services are delivered, tell the stories and scale the business to a profit. Then they must get both, new and repeat loyal consumers.

Capitalism is the celebration of consumer sovereignty. Consumption as a choice and manifest will.

Much is said about lone consumer segments. Till date, there have been hardly any predictive analytical models explaining or pointing to anything more than a ‘utility maximizing’ consumer typology. Exceptions don’t make or break brands. The common consumer type does. The majority moves the market. Therefore, so long as we have robust, empirically validated generalizations, we can stop agonizing about the factual invalidity of the ‘odd one out’.